A survey by a national for-profit research firm finds Michigan residents want state government to do more to protect the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, Global Strategy Group polled more than two thousand people in 10 states, including Michigan, who identified neither as strong Democrats nor strong Republicans.
About 90 percent said states should offer more relief to families and small businesses in the form of low-interest loans, longer grace periods to pay health insurance premiums and larger unemployment insurance checks.
GSG research vice-president Andrew Baumann says respondents want less focus on helping big corporations.
“And in fact, they have appetite to ask big corporations to pay more to help to make sure that policies that help regular people can be afforded right now,” Baumann says.
Spokesman Jarrett Skorup with the free market think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy says he agrees the government should step up during the public health crisis.
However, he warns that policy decisions made during an emergency could cause economic harm over the long term.